ISA Certified Arborists · the Comox Valley
The hard ones come down in pieces.
Removals, pruning and storm work on the coast — climbed, rigged and lowered, with your fence still standing when we leave.
Credentials and coverage
- ISA Certified
Arborists, not a truck and a chainsaw
Certification is checkable in about a minute at treesaregood.org. Ask anyone you hire for the number.
- Fully insured
Liability cover, in writing
You are entitled to see the certificate with the coverage amount on it, not a verbal assurance.
- WorkSafeBC
A current clearance letter
It matters to you, not just to us: an uninsured worker hurt on your property can become your problem.
- Free quotes
Priced after we have seen it
Quotes are free, and we come and look at the tree before we price it.
What you are actually paying for
Anyone can drop a tree in a field.
A tree service in the Comox Valley almost never gets to fell anything. There is a house on one side, a fence on the other, a hydro service overhead and a septic field somewhere under the drop zone. So the tree is taken apart from the top instead — climbed, cut into pieces, and each piece lowered on a rope to a spot that was chosen before the saw started.
That is the whole job. The cutting is minutes. The rigging, the ground crew and the half hour spent deciding where a 200kg section is allowed to land are the reason your greenhouse is still there at four o’clock.
Look at the stump when a crew leaves. A flat, clean cut low to the ground is somebody who was in control of the whole tree. A ragged one a metre up is somebody who was not.
9
services, each with its own page
Because "stump grinding" and "arborist report" are different searches on different days.
3
municipalities, three rulebooks
Courtenay regulates from 20cm. Comox from 20cm or 30cm by species. Cumberland has no tree bylaw.
6
days a week on the road
Storm and hazard calls are answered outside these hours.
100%
of quotes given on site
A number over the phone from a photo is a guess, and the gap is where complaints come from.
What we do
Nine jobs, and the price band for each.
Tree removal
Rigged, sectioned and lowered — not dropped.
From $650Tree pruning
Crown thinning, reduction and deadwooding to standard.
From $380Stump grinding
Ground below grade so you can replant or turf over.
From $180Emergency and storm work
Trees on houses, blocked drives, hangers over the yard.
Quoted on siteArborist reports
The written report a municipal tree permit asks for.
From $450Danger tree assessment
Is it actually dangerous, or does it just look it?
From $250
Start to finish
How a removal actually goes.
Six steps, and only one of them involves a chainsaw doing the obvious thing.
- 01
Someone stands under it
No price is given from a photograph. An arborist walks the site, looks at the root collar and the lean, works out where the pieces can go, and tells you what it will cost before anything is booked.
1 / 6 - 02
The permit question, answered first
Courtenay, Comox and Cumberland have three different sets of rules. We check whether your tree is regulated before the saw comes out, and write the arborist report if the municipality needs one.
2 / 6 - 03
The drop zone is built, not assumed
Ropes go in, the rigging point is chosen, and everything underneath that can move is moved. This is the part that takes the longest and it is the part you are actually paying for.
3 / 6 - 04
It comes down in pieces
A climber takes sections off and lowers them under control. On a tight lot nothing is ever simply felled — the tree is disassembled from the top down, which is why the fence is still standing afterwards.
4 / 6 - 05
The brush goes through the chipper
Limbs are chipped, the trunk is bucked to whatever length you asked for, and the wood is either stacked for you or loaded out.
5 / 6 - 06
The lawn gets raked
Sawdust raked, ruts trodden back, gate closed. You should be able to tell the tree is gone and not much else.
6 / 6
On this coast
Three things the Valley phones about.
The cedars are going brown
Western red cedar across the east side of Vancouver Island has been dying back after a run of dry summers, and it shows first as browning at the branch tips and the top of the crown. Some recover. Some do not. Knowing which is yours is worth doing before you pay to remove anything.
Tree health care →Something came down in the wind
The southeasters that come up the Strait bring trees down every winter, and a stand that has just lost a member is suddenly carrying wind it never had to carry before. Storm calls are answered outside office hours because that is when they happen.
Emergency and storm work →The city wants a report
Courtenay regulates trees over 20cm across, Comox from 20cm or 30cm depending on species, and Cumberland has no tree bylaw at all. Most permit applications need a written report from a certified arborist. Confirm the current rule with your own municipality.
Arborist reports →
In their words
What people say afterwards.
Sample testimonials · not real reviews
“Two firs over the garage, one of them leaning after the December wind. They roped every piece down rather than dropping anything, and the crew spent the last hour raking. My neighbour came over to ask who they were.”
Alison W., Courtenay · Tree removal “I fully expected to be told the maple had to come out. Instead I got a walk around the base, an explanation of what the bracket fungus actually meant, and a recommendation to reduce one limb and look again in two years. Saved me about four thousand dollars.”
Devon M., Comox · Danger tree assessment “Called at six in the morning with a cedar across the driveway and a car underneath it. Answered on the second ring, gave me a number on the phone, and were there before nine. The number on the invoice was the number on the phone.”
Grant T., Royston · Emergency and storm work
Before you call
The questions we get every week.
Answers written to be useful on their own, including the ones that end with “leave it alone”.
All questionsIt depends which municipality the tree stands in, and the three main ones differ. Courtenay regulates the removal of trees over 20cm in diameter at breast height under its Tree Protection Bylaw, and protected species such as Garry oak and Pacific dogwood at any size. Comox regulates priority native species from 20cm and other species from 30cm. Cumberland has no tree bylaw at the time of writing, though it does keep a list of significant trees. Confirm the current rule with your own municipality before booking any removal.
Tree removal is priced per site, not per tree, because the same tree is a two-hour job in an open field and a full rigging day between a house and a hydro line. Access, what is underneath, the drop zone and how the wood leaves the property drive the number far more than height does. On this sample site most residential removals are shown in a $650 to $3,200 band.
Ask for four things: proof of liability insurance, a WorkSafeBC clearance letter, the ISA certification number of the arborist who will be on site, and a written quote that names the work. All four take a company about five minutes to produce. A company that hesitates on any of them has told you something.
Topping cuts the crown back to stubs that cannot seal over, so the tree answers with weak regrowth anchored in decaying wood. Ten years later the same tree is taller, heavier and considerably more likely to fail. Crown reduction achieves the height and weight reduction with cuts the tree can actually close.
Western red cedar across the east side of Vancouver Island has been dying back after a run of dry summers, and it appears first as browning and thinning at the branch tips and the top of the crown. A tree still at the flagging stage can recover if water reaches its root zone; one that has gone grey and brittle from the top down will not.
Where we work
Courtenay, Comox, Cumberland, Royston and 6 more.
- Courtenay
- Comox
- Cumberland
- Royston
- Union Bay
- Fanny Bay
- Merville
- Black Creek
- Denman Island
- Hornby Island
No premises to visit — the truck comes to the tree. Island crossings to Denman and Hornby are booked a day ahead so the ferry does not decide how the job goes.
Send us a photo of the tree.
Most quotes start with one picture and a postcode. We will tell you on the phone whether it is a job, a permit question, or something you can leave alone.
Quotes are free, and we come and look at the tree before we price it.